The
Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a week-long series of increasingly violent riots and fighting in late December 1989 that overthrew the Government of
Nicolae CeauşescuNicolae Andruţă Ceauşescu was a Romanian politician who was the Secretary General of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, President of the Council of State from 1967, and President of Romania from 1974 to 1989...
. After a trial, Ceauşescu and his wife
ElenaElena Ceauşescu was the wife of Romania's Communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu, and Deputy Prime Minister of Romania.-Background:...
were executed.
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
was the only
Eastern BlocThe terms Eastern Bloc, Communist Bloc or Soviet Bloc were used to refer to the former Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, including the countries of the Warsaw Pact, along with Yugoslavia and Albania, which were not aligned with the Soviet Union after 1948 and 1960...
country to overthrow its government violently or to execute its leaders.
Background
As in neighboring countries, by 1989 the bulk of the Romanian population was dissatisfied with the Communist regime. However, unlike other
Eastern BlocThe terms Eastern Bloc, Communist Bloc or Soviet Bloc were used to refer to the former Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, including the countries of the Warsaw Pact, along with Yugoslavia and Albania, which were not aligned with the Soviet Union after 1948 and 1960...
countries, Romania had never undergone even limited
de-StalinizationDe-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality and Stalinist political system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in 1953...
. Ceauşescu's economic and development policies (including grandiose construction projects such as the
Palace of the ParliamentThe Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania is a multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Palace is the world's largest civilian administrative building , most expensive administrative building, and...
and a draconian austerity program designed to enable Romania to liquidate its entire national debt in only a few years) were generally blamed for the country's painful shortages and widespread, increasing poverty. Parallel with increasing poverty, the
secret policeSecret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy to maintain national security against internal threats to the state....
(
SecuritateThe Securitate , was the secret service of Communist Romania. Previously the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului...
) were becoming so ubiquitous as to make Romania essentially a
police stateThe term police state describes a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population...
.
Unlike the other
Warsaw PactThe Warsaw Pact is the informal name for the mutual defense Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance subscribed by eight Communist states in Eastern Europe, that was established at the USSR’s initiative and realised on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland...
leaders, Ceauşescu had not been slavishly pro-
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, but rather had pursued an "independent" foreign policy based on that of
Josip Broz TitoJosip Broz Tito Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz Tito (Cyrillic script: Јосип Броз Тито, (7 or 25 May 1892 – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. He was Secretary-General (later President) of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1939–80), and went on to lead the World War II...
's Yugoslavia. While Soviet leader
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
spoke of reform, Ceauşescu emulated the political hard-line, megalomania, and personality cults of East Asian communist leaders such as
North KoreaNorth Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...
's Kim Il Sung. Even after the
Berlin Wall|-||-||-||-||}The Berlin Wall was a physical barrier erected by the German Democratic Republic completely encircling West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The longer inner German border demarcated the border between East and West Germany...
fell and Ceauşescu's closest comrades, GDR's leader Eric Honecker resigned, and
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
n leader
Todor ZhivkovTodor Hristov Zhivkov was a communist politician and leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from March 4, 1954 until November 10, 1989.- Early life :...
was replaced in November 1989, Ceauşescu ignored the threat to his position as the last old-style communist leader in
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
.
Timişoara protest
On December 16, a protest broke out in
TimişoaraTimişoara , also known as "The City of Athletes", is a city in the Banat region of western Romania...
in response to an attempt by the government to evict a dissident, Hungarian Reformed pastor
László TőkésLászló Tőkés is an ethnic Hungarian politician in Romania, bishop of the Romanian Reformed Church District of Piatra Craiului , Transylvania, Romania...
. Tőkés had recently made critical comments toward the regime in the Hungarian media, and the government alleged that he was inciting ethnic hatred. At the behest of the government, his bishop removed him from his post, thereby depriving him of the right to use the apartment he was entitled to as a pastor, and sending him to be a pastor in countryside. For some time, his parishioners gathered around his home to protect him from harassment and eviction. Many passers-by, including religious Romanian students, spontaneously joined in.
As it became clear that the crowd would not disperse, the mayor, Petre Moţ, made remarks suggesting that he had overturned the decision to evict Tőkés. Meanwhile, the crowd had grown impatient — and since Moţ declined to confirm his statement against the planned eviction in writing, the crowd started to chant anticommunist slogans. Consequently, police and
Securitate forces showed up at the scene. By 7:30 p.m., the protest had spread out, and the original cause became largely irrelevant. Some of the protesters attempted to burn down the building that housed the District Committee of the
Romanian Communist PartyThe Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
(PCR). The
Securitate responded with tear gas and water jets, while the police beat up rioters and arrested many of them. Around 9:00 p.m., the rioters withdrew. They regrouped eventually around the
Romanian Orthodox CathedralThe Timişoara Orthodox Cathedral is a Romanian Orthodox cathedral in Timişoara, Romania. It was built between 1937 and 1940. It is dedicated to the Three Holy Hierarchs, Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom...
and started a protest march around the city, but again they were confronted by the security forces.
Riots and protests resumed the following day, December 17. The rioters broke into the District Committee building and threw Party documents, propaganda brochures, Ceauşescu's writings, and other symbols of communist power out the windows. Again, the protesters attempted to set the building on fire, but this time they were stopped by military units. Since Romania did not have a riot police (Ceauşescu, who believed the Romanian people loved him, never saw the need for the formation of one), the military were sent in to control the riots, since the situation was too large for the
Securitate and police to handle. The significance of the army presence in the streets was an ominous one: it meant that they had received their orders from the highest level of the command chain, presumably from Ceauşescu himself. The army failed to establish order and chaos ensued with gunfire, fights, casualties, and burned cars. Transport Auto Blindat (TAB) armored personnel carriers and tanks were called in. After 8:00 p.m., from Piaţa Libertăţii (Liberty Square) to the Opera there was wild shooting, including the area of Decebal bridge, Calea Lipovei (Lipovei Avenue), and Calea Girocului (Girocului Avenue). Tanks, trucks, and TABs blocked the accesses into the city while helicopters hovered overhead. After midnight the protests calmed down. Ion Coman, Ilie Matei, and Ştefan Guşă inspected the city, in which some areas looked like the aftermath of a war: destruction, ash, and blood.
The morning of December 18, the centre was being guarded by soldiers and
Securitate-agents in plainclothes. Mayor Moţ ordered a Party gathering to take place at the University, with the purpose of condemning the "vandalism" of the previous days. He also declared
martial lawMartial law is the system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice.Martial law is sometimes imposed during wars or occupations in the absence of any other civil government. Examples of this form of military rule include Germany and Japan...
, prohibiting people from going about in groups larger than two people. Defying the curfew, a group of 30 young men headed for the Orthodox Cathedral, where they stopped and waved a Romanian flag from which they had removed the Romanian Communist coat of arms. Expecting that they would be fired upon, they started to sing "
Deşteaptă-te, române!"Deşteaptă-te, române" is Romania's national anthem....
" (Wake up, Romanians), an earlier national song that had been banned since 1947. They were, indeed, fired upon and some died, and others were seriously injured, while the lucky ones were able to escape.
On December 19, Radu Bălan and Ştefan Guşă visited the workers in the city’s factories, but failed to get them to resume work. On December 20, massive columns of workers were entering the city. About 100,000 protesters occupied Piaţa Operei (Opera Square — today Piaţa Victoriei, Victory Square) and started to chant anti-government protests:
"Noi suntem poporul!" ("We are the people!"),
"Armata e cu noi!" ("The army is on our side!"),
"Nu vă fie frică, Ceauşescu pică!" ("Have no fear, Ceauşescu will fall"). Meanwhile, Emil Bobu and Constantin Dăscălescu were sent by Elena Ceauşescu (Nicolae Ceauşescu being at that time in
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
), to solve the situation. They met with a delegation of the protesters and accepted freeing the majority of the arrested protesters. However, they refused to comply with the protesters’ main demand (resignation of Ceauşescu), and the situation remained essentially unchanged. The next day, trains loaded with workers originating from factories in
OlteniaOltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia...
arrived in Timişoara. The regime was attempting to use them to repress the mass protests, but they finally ended up joining the protests. One worker explained: "Yesterday, our factory boss and a Party official rounded us up in the yard, handed us wood clubs and told us that Hungarians and ‘hooligans’ were devastating Timişoara and that it is our duty to go there and help crush the riots. But now I realize that this is not true."
On December 18, 1989, Ceauşescu had departed for a visit to
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, leaving the duty of crushing the Timişoara revolt to his subordinates and his wife. Upon his return on the
eveningEvening is the period in which the daylight is decreasing, between the late afternoon and night, around the time when dinner is taken. Though the term is subjective, evening is typically understood to begin before sunset, during the close of the standard business day – and extend until dusk, the...
of December 20, the situation became even more tense, and he gave a televised speech from the TV
studioA studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture,scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, cinematography, animation, radio or television broadcasting or the...
inside the Central Committee Building (CC Building), in which he spoke about the
eventsA phenomenon is any observable occurrence. In popular usage, a phenomenon often refers to an extraordinary event. In scientific usage, a phenomenon is any event that is observable, however commonplace it might be, even if it requires the use of instrumentation to observe it...
at Timişoara in terms of an "interference of foreign forces in Romania's internal affairs" and an "external aggression on Romania's sovereignty." The country, which had no information of the Timişoara events from the national
mediaMass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such...
, heard about the Timişoara revolt from Western
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
stations like
Voice of AmericaVoice of America is the official external radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government. Its oversight entity is the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio, TV and the Internet around the world in...
and
Radio Free EuropeRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is an international broadcast organization that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe and Middle Asia. RFE/RL is supervised by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, with the US Secretary of State among its members. It is funded by the...
, and by
word of mouthWord of mouth is a reference to the passing of information from person to person. Originally the term referred specifically to oral communication , but now includes any type of human communication, such as face to face, telephone, email, and text messaging.-History of word of mouth marketing:One of...
. A mass
meetingIn a meeting, two or more people come together for the purpose of discussing a predetermined topic such as business or community event planning, often in a formal setting....
was staged for the next day, December 21, which, according to the official media, was presented as a "spontaneous movement of support for Ceauşescu," emulating the 1968 meeting in which Ceauşescu had spoken against the
invasion of CzechoslovakiaThe Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
by the Warsaw Pact forces.
The revolt spreads to Bucharest
On the morning of December 21, Ceauşescu addressed an assembly of approximately 110,000 people, to condemn the uprising in Timişoara. However, Ceauşescu was out of touch with his people and completely misread the crowd's mood. Starting his speech in the usual "
wooden languageIn rhetoric, wooden language refers to a diverting of attention from reality by using certain vague and ambiguous words, such as banalities too abstract or pompous, which appeal to sentiment and emotionality rather than to facts.Wooden Language was commonly used in political speeches and newspaper...
, spurting out pro-socialist and Communist Party rhetoric," Ceauşescu delivered a litany of the achievements of the "socialist revolution" and Romanian "multi-laterally developed socialist society." The people, however, remained apathetic, and only the front rows supported Ceauşescu with cheers and applause. Ceauşescu's lack of understanding of the recent events and his incapacity to handle the situation were further demonstrated when he offered, as an act of desperation, to raise workers' salaries by 100
leiThe leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
per month (about 4 US dollars at the time, yet a 5-10% raise for a modest salary) and student scholarship from 100 to 110
leiThe leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
while continuing to praise the achievements of the Socialist Revolution, unable to realize that a revolution was brewing right in front of his eyes.
As he was addressing the crowd from the balcony of the Central Committee building, sudden movement came from the outskirts of the massed assembly, as did the sound of (what various sources have reported as) fireworks, bombs, or guns, which together caused the assembly to break into chaos. Initially frightened, the crowds tried to disperse. Bullhorns then began to spread the news that the Securitate was firing on the crowd and that a "revolution" was unfolding. This persuaded people in the assembly to join in. The rally turned into a protest demonstration.
The entire speech was being broadcast live around Romania, and it is estimated that perhaps 76% of the nation was watching. Censors attempted to cut the live video feed, and replace it with communist propaganda songs and video praising the Ceauşescu regime, but parts of the riots had already been broadcast and most of the Romanian people realized that something unusual was in progress.
Ceauşescu and his wife, as well as other officials and CPEx members, panicked, and Ceauşescu went into hiding inside the building.
The reaction of the Ceauşescu couple on the balcony is memorable: They staged futile attempts to regain control over the uprising crowd using phone conversation formulas such as
"Alo, Alo" ("Hello, Hello"), Ceauşescu's wife "advised" him how to contain the situation
"Vorbeşte-le, vorbeşte-le" ("Talk to them, talk to them"), and they urged the crowd
"Staţi liniştiţi la locurile voastre" ("Stay quiet in your places"). In the end Ceauşescu allowed himself to be directed into the Central Committee building by his underlings.
The jeers and whistles soon erupted into riot; the crowd took to the streets, placing the capital, like Timişoara, in turmoil. Members of the crowd spontaneously began shouting anti-communist and anti-Ceauşescu slogans, which spread and became chants:
"Jos dictatorul!" ("Down with the dictator"),
"Moarte criminalului!" ("Death to the murderer"),
"Noi suntem poporul, jos cu dictatorul!" ("We are the People, down with the dictator"),
"Ceauşescu cine eşti?/Criminal din Scorniceşti" ("Ceauşescu, who are you? A murderer from
ScorniceştiScorniceşti is a town in Olt County, Romania with a population of 12,802. The town administers 13 villages and has a total area of 170 km², being the locality with the largest area in the county of Olt, surpassing even its capital...
"). Protesters eventually flooded the downtown area, from Piaţa Kogălniceanu to
Piaţa UniriiPiaţa Unirii is one of the largest squares in central Bucharest, located in center of the city where Sectors 1, 2, 3, and 4 meet...
,
Piaţa RosettiPiaţa Rosetti is a small square in Sector 2 of Bucharest, 250 meters from Piaţa Universităţii. It is named after former mayor, politician, and 1848 revolutionary C. A. Rosetti. The square was designed as part of the modernization efforts of mayor Pache Protopopescu in 1888. A statue of Rosetti...
, and
Piaţa RomanăPiaţa Romană is a major traffic intersection in Sector 1, central Bucharest.The most important of the streets meeting at Piaţa Romană are Lascăr Catargiu Boulevard and Magheru Boulevard...
. In one notable scene from the event, a young man waved a
tricolourA tricolour or tricolor is a flag or banner more-or-less equally divided into three bands of differing colors...
with the Communist coat of arms torn out of its center, while perched on the statue of Mihai Viteazul on Boulevard Mihail Kogălniceanu in the
University SquareUniversity Square is located in downtown Bucharest, near the University of Bucharest.Four statues are located in the University Square, in front of the University; they depict Ion Heliade Rădulescu , Michael the Brave , Gheorghe Lazăr and Spiru Haret .The square was the site of the 1990 Golaniad,...
.
As the hours passed, many more people took to the streets. Soon the protesters — unarmed and unorganized — were confronted by soldiers, tanks, TABs,
USLABrigada Antiteroristă is a tactical special operations unit of the Romanian Intelligence Service .-History:...
troops (
Unitatea Specială pentru Lupta Antiteroristă, anti-terrorist special squads), and armed plain-clothes
SecuritateThe Securitate , was the secret service of Communist Romania. Previously the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului...
officers. The crowd was soon being shot at from various buildings, side streets, and tanks. There were many casualties, including deaths, as victims were shot, clubbed to death, stabbed, and crushed by armored vehicles (one TAB drove into the crowd around the
InterContinental HotelThe InterContinental Bucharest is a highrise five star hotel in Bucharest, situated near University Square, in sector 1 and is also a landmark of the city...
, crushing people — a French journalist, Jean Louis Calderon, was killed; a street near University Square was later named after him, as well as a high school in Timisoara). Firefighters hit the demonstrators with powerful water jets and the police continued to beat and arrest people. Protesters managed to build a defensible barricade in front of
Dunărea ("Danube") restaurant, which stood until after midnight, but was finally torn apart by government forces. Intense continuous shooting continued until after 3:00 a.m., by which time the survivors had fled the streets.
Records of the fighting that day include footage shot from helicopters — sent to raid the area and to record evidence for eventual reprisals — as well as by tourists in the high tower of the centrally located InterContinental Hotel, next to the National Theater and across the street from the University.
It is likely that in the small hours of December 22, the Ceauşescus made their second mistake of the day: Instead of fleeing the city under cover of night, they decided to wait until morning to leave. Ceauşescu must have thought that his desperate attempts to crush the protests had succeeded, because he apparently called another meeting for the next morning. However, before 7:00 a.m., his wife Elena received the news that large columns of workers from many industrial platforms (large communist-era factories or groups of factories concentrated into industrial zones) were heading towards downtown Bucharest. The police barricades that were meant to block access to
Piaţa UniversităţiiUniversity Square is located in downtown Bucharest, near the University of Bucharest.Four statues are located in the University Square, in front of the University; they depict Ion Heliade Rădulescu , Michael the Brave , Gheorghe Lazăr and Spiru Haret .The square was the site of the 1990 Golaniad,...
(University Square) and Piaţa Palatului (Palace Square, now
Piaţa RevoluţieiRevolution Square is a square in central Bucharest, on Calea Victoriei. Known as Piaţa Palatului until 1989, it was later renamed after the 1989 Romanian Revolution....
— Revolution Square) proved useless. By 9:30 a.m., University Square was jammed with protesters. Security forces (army, police and others) re-entered the area, only to join with the protesters.
By 10 A.M., as the radio broadcast was announcing the introduction of martial law and of a ban on groups larger than five persons, yet hundreds of thousands of people were gathering for the first time, spontaneously, in central Bucharest (the previous day's crowd had come together at Ceauşescu's orders). Ceauşescu attempted to address the crowd from the balcony of the Central Committee of the Communist Party building, but his attempt was met with a wave of disapproval and anger. Helicopters spread manifestos (which did not reach the crowd, due to unfavourable winds) instructing people not to fall victim to the latest "diversion attempts," but to go home instead and enjoy the Christmas feast. This order, which drew unfavorable comparisons to
Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette ; was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I....
's haughty "
Let them eat cake"Let them eat cake" is the traditional but inaccurate translation of the French phrase "qu'ils mangent de la brioche." Brioche is actually a type of egg bread enriched with a large proportion of butter, rather than any type of dessert or confection...
", further infuriated the people, who at that time had trouble procuring such basic foodstuffs as cooking oil.
Ceauşescu falls
On the morning of December 22, sometime around 9:30 a.m.,
Vasile MileaVasile Milea was Nicolae Ceauşescu's minister of defense during the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and was involved in the reprisal phase of the revolution that took 162 lives....
, Ceauşescu's minister of defense, died under suspicious circumstances. A communiqué by Ceauşescu stated that Milea had been found to be a traitor and that he had committed suicide after his treason was revealed. The most widespread opinion at the time was that Milea had been assassinated because of his refusal to follow Ceauşescu's orders. In 2005 an investigation concluded that the minister killed himself by shooting at his heart, but the bullet missed the heart, hit an artery nearby, and he died soon afterwards.
Upon learning of Milea's apparent suicide, Ceauşescu appointed Victor Stănculescu as minister of defense. He accepted after a brief hesitation. Stănculescu, however, ordered the troops back to their quarters without Ceauşescu's knowledge, and moreover persuaded Ceauşescu to leave by helicopter, thus making the dictator a fugitive. By refusing to carry out the orders of Ceauşescu's (who was still technically commander-in-chief of the army), Stănculescu played a central role in the overthrow of the dictatorship. "I had the prospect of two execution squads: Ceauşescu's and the revolutionary one!" confessed Stănculescu later. In the afternoon, Stănculescu "chose" Iliescu's political group from among others that were striving for power in the aftermath of the recent events.
At 11:20 on 22 December 1989, the commander of Ceauşescu's flight, Lieutenant-Colonel Vasile Malutan, received instructions from General Lieutenant Opruta to proceed to Palace Square to pick up the president. As he flew over Palace Square, he saw it was impossible to land there. Malutan landed his white
DauphinThe Eurocopter SA 365/AS365 Dauphin 2 is a medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine helicopter manufactured by Eurocopter .-Design and development:...
, no. 203, on the terrace at 11:44. A man brandishing a white net curtain from one of the windows waved him down. Malutan said, "Then Stelica, the co-pilot, came to me and said that there were demonstrators coming to the terrace. There the Ceauşescus came out, both practically carried by their bodyguards ... They look as if they were fainting. They were white with terror. Mănescu (one of the vice-presidents) and Bobu (Secretary to the Central Committee) were running behind them. Mănescu, Bobu, Neagoe and another Securitate officer scrambled to the four seats in the back ... As I pulled Ceauşescu in, I saw the demonstrators running across the terrace ... There wasn't enough space, Elena Ceauşescu and I were squeezed in between the chairs and the door .. We were only supposed to carry four passengers .. We had six."
According to Malutan, it was 12:08 when they left for
SnagovSnagov is a commune, located 40 km north of Bucharest in Ilfov County, Romania. According to the 2002 census, 99.2% of the population is ethnic Romanian and 0.4% are Roma. The commune is composed of five villages: Ciofliceni, Ghermăneşti, Snagov, Tâncăbeşti and Vlădiceasca.-History:Snagov village...
.
After they arrived there, Ceauşescu took Malutan into the presidential suite and ordered him to get two helicopters filled with soldiers for an armed guard, and a further Dauphin to come to Snagov. Malutan's unit commander replied on the phone, "There has been a revolution .. You are on your own ... Good luck!". Malutan then said to Ceauşescu that the second motor was now warmed up and they need to leave soon, but he could only take four people not six. Manescu and Bobu stayed behind. Ceauşescu then ordered Malutan to head for
TituTitu is a town in Dâmboviţa County, southern Romania with a population of 10,226 , best known for its yearly September 14 bâlci .Titu is divided into three main zones...
. Near Titu, Malutan says that he made the helicopter dip up and down. He lied to Ceauşescu, saying that this was to avoid anti-aircraft fire, since they would now be in range. The dictator panicked and told him to land.
He did so in a field next to the old road that led to
PiteştiPiteşti is a city in Romania, located on the Argeş River. The capital and largest city of Argeş County, it is an important commercial and industrial center, as well as the home of two universities. Piteşti is situated on the A1 freeway connecting it directly to the national capital Bucharest,...
. Malutan then told his four passengers that he could do nothing more. The Securitate men ran to the roadside and began to flag down passing cars. Two cars were flagged down, one of a forestry official and one a red Dacia of a local doctor. However, the local doctor was keen not to get involved and after a short time driving the Ceausescus faked engine trouble. A car of a bicycle repair man was then flagged down and he took them to
TârgovişteTârgovişte is a city in the Dâmboviţa county of Romania. It is situated on the right bank of the Ialomiţa River. , it had an estimated population of 89,000. One village, Priseaca, is administered by the city.-Name:...
. The driver of the car, Nicolae Petrişor, convinced them that they could hide successfully in an agricultural technical institute on the edge of town. When they arrived, the director guided the Ceausescus into a room and then locked them in. They were arrested by the local police at about 3:30 p.m., then after some wandering around transported to the Târgovişte garrison's military compound, and held captive for about 3 days, until their trial. On 24 December, Ion Iliescu, head of the newly formed Council of the Front of National Salvation signed a Decree on the establishment of the Extraordinary Military Tribunal. The trial was held on December 25, lasted for about 2 hours, and delivered death-sentence for the couple. The execution followed immediately, on the spot, being carried out by three paratroopers with their service guns.
Footage of the trial and of the executed Ceauşescus was promptly released in Romania and to the rest of the world. The very moment of execution was not filmed since the cameraman was too slow, and he managed to get out into the court just as the shooting ended.
The new regime
After Ceauşescu left, the crowds in Palace Square entered a celebratory mood, perhaps even more intense than in the other former Eastern Bloc countries because of the recent violence. People cried, shouted, and gave each other gifts. The occupation of the Central Committee building continued. People threw Ceauşescu's writings, official portraits, and propaganda books out the windows, intending to burn them. They also promptly ripped off the giant letters from the roof making up the word
"comunist" ("communist") in the slogan: "Trăiască Partidul Comunist Român!" ("Long live the Communist Party of Romania!"). A young woman appeared on the rooftop and waved a flag with the coat of arms torn or cut out.
At that time, fierce fights were underway at
Bucharest Otopeni International AirportHenri Coandă International Airport is Romania's main international airport, located northwest of the capital city of Bucharest along with the smaller Băneasa Aurel Vlaicu. The airport is located in Otopeni, north of Bucharest. It is named after Romanian flight pioneer Henri Coandă, the builder...
between troops sent one against another under claims that they were going to confront terrorists. According to a book by Ceauşescu's bodyguard, Securitate Lieutenant Colonel
Dumitru BurlanDumitru Burlan is a Romanian former Securitate officer.During the communist period, he worked for the Securitate. He was the chief of bodyguards of President Nicolae Ceauşescu, and served once as his stand-in , but was not able to protect Ceauşescu from arrest and execution during the Romanian...
, the generals who were part of the conspiracy led by General Stănculescu were trying to create fictional terrorism scenarios in order to induce fear and to push the army onto the side of the plotters.
However, the seizure of power by the new political structure National Salvation Front (FSN), which "emanated" from the second tier of the Communist Party leadership with help of the plotting generals, was not yet complete. Forces considered to be loyal to the old regime (spontaneously nicknamed "terrorists") opened fire on the crowd and attacked vital points of socio-political life: the television, radio, and telephone buildings, as well as Casa Scânteii (the center of the nation's print media, which serves a similar role today under the name
Casa Presei LibereCasa Presei Libere is a building in northern Bucharest, Romania, the tallest in the city between 1956 and 2007.A horse race track was built in 1905 on the future site of Casa Presei Libere...
, "House of the Free Press") and the post office in the district of
Drumul TabereiDrumul Taberei is a neighbourhood located in the south-west of Bucharest, Romania, roughly between Timişoara Avenue and Ghencea Avenue, neighboring Militari to the North, Panduri to the East and Ghencea and Rahova to the South and South-East.It is one of the few examples of successful urban...
; Piaţa Palatului (site of the Central Committee building, but also of the central university library, the national art museum, and the Ateneul Român, Bucharest's leading concert hall); the university and the adjoining Piaţa Universităţii (one of the city's main intersections); Otopeni and
BăneasaBucharest "Aurel Vlaicu" Airport is located in Băneasa district, north of Bucharest, Romania. It was Bucharest's only airport until 1968, when the Otopeni Airport was built...
airports; hospitals, and the Ministry of Defence.
During the night of December 22–December 23, Bucharest residents remained on the streets, especially in the attacked zones, fighting (and ultimately winning, even at the cost of many lives) a battle with an elusive and dangerous enemy. With the military confused by contradictory orders, true battles ensued, with many real casualties. At 9:00 p.m. on December 23, tanks and a few paramilitary units arrived to protect the Palace of the Republic.
Meanwhile, messages of support were flooding in from all over the world:
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
(
PresidentThe President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State....
François MitterrandFrançois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand served as the President of France from 1981 to 1995, elected as representative of the Socialist Party . First elected during the May 1981 presidential election, he became the first socialist President of the Fifth Republic and the first left-wing head of...
) ; the
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
(President
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
);
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
(the
Hungarian Socialist PartyThe Hungarian Socialist Party describes itself as a Social Democratic party in Hungary. It is the partial successor of the communist Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party , which ruled Hungary between 1956 and 1989. The decision to declare the party a successor of the MSZMP was controversial, and...
); the new East German government (at that time the two German states were not yet formally reunited);
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
(
Petar MladenovPetar Toshev Mladenov was a Bulgarian communist diplomat and politician.Mladenov was born to a peasant family in the village of Toshevtsi, Vidin district. His father was an anti-fascist partisan killed in action in 1944...
, General Secretary of the
Communist Party of BulgariaCommunist Party of Bulgaria is a communist party in Bulgaria led by Alexander Paunov. The party was founded in 1996 as the Communist Party. It is part of the Coalition for Bulgaria, an alliance led by the Bulgarian Socialist Party. The coalition won in the 2009 elections 17.1% of the popular vote...
);
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
(
Ladislav AdamecLadislav Adamec was a Czechoslovak communist political figure. In October 1988, Lubomír Štrougal retired from being the Prime Minister and was replaced by Ladislav Adamec. He was the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from October 12, 1988 to December 7, 1989...
, leader of the
Communist Party of CzechoslovakiaThe Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
, and
Václav HavelVáclav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, former dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
, the dissident writer, revolution leader and future president of the Republic);
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
(the Minister of Foreign Affairs); the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(President
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
) ;
West GermanyWest Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...
(Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher);
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
(Secretary General
Manfred WörnerManfred Hermann Wörner was a German politician and diplomat. He served as the defense minister of West Germany between 1982 and 1988. He then served as the Secretary General of NATO from 1988 to 1994. His term as Secretary General saw the end of the Cold War and the German reunification...
); the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
(
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post....
);
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
;
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
; the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
;
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
;
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
;
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
(the
Japanese Communist PartyThe Japanese Communist Party is a political party in Japan.The JCP advocates the establishment of a society based on socialism, democracy and peace, and opposition to militarism...
); and the
Moldavian SSRThe Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic : Република Советикэ Сочиалистэ Молдовеняскэ or Republica Sovietică Socialistă Moldovenească; Moldavskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), commonly abbreviated to Moldavian SSR or MSSR, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union...
.
In the following days, moral support was followed by material support. Large quantities of food, medicine, clothing, medical equipment, etc., were sent to Romania. Around the world, the press dedicated entire pages and sometimes even complete issues to the Romanian revolution and its leaders.
On December 24, Bucharest was a city at war. Tanks, APCs, and trucks continued to go on patrol around the city and to surround trouble spots in order to protect them. At intersections near strategic objectives, roadblocks were built; automatic gunfire continued in and around Piaţa Universităţii, the Gara de Nord (the city's main railroad station), and Piaţa Palatului. Yet amid the chaos, some people were seen to be clutching makeshift Christmas trees. "Terrorist activities" continued until December 27, when they abruptly stopped. Nobody ever found who conducted them, or who ordered their termination.
Casualties
The total number of deaths in the Romanian Revolution was 1,104, of which 162 were in the protests that led to the overthrow of
Nicolae CeauşescuNicolae Andruţă Ceauşescu was a Romanian politician who was the Secretary General of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, President of the Council of State from 1967, and President of Romania from 1974 to 1989...
(December 16–22, 1989) and 942 in the fighting that occurred after the seizure of power by the new political structure
National Salvation FrontThe National Salvation Front was the governing body of Romania in the first weeks after the Romanian Revolution of 1989, subsequently turned into a political party...
(FSN). The number of wounded was 3,352, of which 1,107 occurred while Ceauşescu was still in power and 2,245 after the
National Salvation FrontThe National Salvation Front was the governing body of Romania in the first weeks after the Romanian Revolution of 1989, subsequently turned into a political party...
took power.
Aftermath
The Revolution brought Romania vast attention from the outside world. Initially, much of the world's sympathy inevitably went to the National Salvation Front government under
Ion IliescuIon Iliescu served as President of Romania from 1990 until 1996, and from 2000 until 2004. From 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 until his retirement in 2008, Iliescu was a Senator for the Social Democratic Party , whose honorary president he remains.He joined the Communist Party in 1953 and became a...
, a former member of the Communist Party leadership and a Ceauşescu ally prior to falling into the dictator's disgrace in the early 1980s. The National Salvation Front, composed mainly of former members of the second echelon of the Communist Party, immediately assumed control over the state institutions, including the main media outlets, such as the national radio and television networks. They used their control of the media in order to launch virulent propaganda-style attacks against their new political opponents, the traditional democratic parties, which re-emerged after more than 50 years of underground activity.
Much of that sympathy was squandered during the
MineriadSee also The 1990s: the rise and decline of miners' unionsA Mineriad is the term used to name any of the successive violent interventions of miners in Bucharest. These interventions were generally seen as aimed at wrestling policy changes or simply material advantages from the current political...
of January 1990 when miners and police, responding to Iliescu's appeals, invaded Bucharest and brutalized students and intellectuals who protested what they described as the hijacking of the Romanian Revolution by former members of the communist leadership under the auspices of the National Salvation Front, in an attempt to suppress any genuine political opposition.
In May 1990, partly due to the National Salvation Front's use of the media and of the partly preserved Communist Party infrastructure to silence the democratic opposition, Iliescu became Romania's first elected president after the revolution, with a majority of 85%. These elections have been condemned as undemocratic by both Romanian traditional parties and by the Western media.
Iliescu remained the central figure in Romanian politics for more than a decade, being re-elected for the third time in 2000, after a term out of power between 1996–2000. The survival of Ceauşescu’s former ally demonstrated the ambiguity of the Romanian revolution, at once the most violent in 1989 and yet one that, according to some did not entirely replace the former regime.
See also
<
Communist RomaniaCommunist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the leading role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
| History of RomaniaThis article provides only a brief outline of each period of the history of Romania; details are presented in separate articles . -Prehistory:...
| Present Romania- 1989 revolution :1989 marked the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. A mid-December protest in Timişoara against the eviction of a Hungarian minister grew into a country-wide protest against the Ceauşescu régime, sweeping the dictator from power....
>